William Hubbs Rehnquist, Stanford Law School graduate of the class of 1952, was nominated for the United States Supreme Court by President Richard Nixon on October 4. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on December 10. Mr. Rehnquist, who did his undergraduate work here as well (B.A. 1948), is the first Stanford alumnus to serve on the highest court in the Nation.

Mr. Rehnquist graduated first in his class and was labeled by one of his professors, George Osborne, as “the outstanding student of his law school generation.” Former Dean Carl Spaeth commented that Mr. Rehnquist was a “very able law student” on the Stanford Law Review.

After graduation from the Law School, Mr. Rehnquist served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson until June 1953. He then moved to Phoenix to enter private law practice. He has served as chairman of the Arizona Uniform Laws Commission and president of the Maricopa County Bar Association (Arizona).

Since 1969 Mr. Rehnquist has been Assistant United States Attorney General. In disclosing his nomination, President Nixon said: “I would rate William Rehnquist as having one of the finest legal minds in the whole country today. He rates at the very top as a constitutional lawyer and a legal scholar.” He lives with his wife Natalie Cornell Rehnquist (Stanford ’51) and their three children, James, Janet and Nancy.

Mr. Rehnquist has kept close contacts with the Law School since graduation. He was an officer for the Arizona Law Society and chairman of his Law School class reunion in 1967. More recently, he was appointed to the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors by President Richard W. Lyman.